England and Australia T20 World Cup stars fly to Ashes on same flight

England’s Ashes players could be in for an uncomfortable flight to Queensland on Monday, sharing an aircraft with rival Australia’s triumphant T20 World Cup squad

Video Loading

Video Unavailable

The video will auto-play soon8Cancel

Play now

Ben Stokes gets back in the swing of things after Ashes omission

A number of England’s Ashes players are set to embark on an uncomfortable flight to Australia on Monday.

As if a 15 hour journey from Dubai to Queensland wasn’t going to be arduous enough, those who have been playing for England in the T20 World Cup will be on a charter plane with the triumphant Australian squad.

Eoin Morgan’s side were heavily fancied to win the tournament but crashed out at the semi-final stage following a dramatic defeat against New Zealand. On the contrary the Aussies, who were thrashed by England during the group stage, pulled off an upset in their final four match to beat Pakistan.

Then in Sunday’s final, Aaron Finch and Co were in clinical form, with an unbeaten 77 from Mitchell Marsh ensuring they comfortably surpassed New Zealand’s total of 172-4 with eight wickets to spare.

Now Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler, Dawid Malan, Chris Woakes and Mark Wood, plus members of the coaching staff, may need ear-plugs when they share a specially arranged flight with the jubilant Australians.

And Sam Curran, who worked as a pundit for Sky Sports during the tournament, and for the final specifically, after being ruled out with injury, didn’t envy those having to travel.

Ahead of the final, he said “It’s [the flight] going to be rowdy or very quiet. Either way I wouldn’t want to be on it.”

Indeed, prior to Sunday, fast-bowler Wood had voiced his fears that he would be subjected to wild Australian celebrations.

“I can’t have Australia win that game,” the fast bowler said.

“You can look them in the eye and say ‘well played’ but when you are about to head off for an Ashes series against them the last thing you want will be them feeling confident and waving a trophy around in your face before you have even got there.”

The remaining 13 players in England’s Ashes squad, including captain Joe Root, have already arrived down under, and are currently in quarantine at a hotel in the Gold Coast ahead of their first warm-up match on November 23.

The first Test of the five-match series takes place in Brisbane on December 8, with Chris Silverwood’s men facing an uphill task to regain the urn they last won back in 2015.

England have won just one Ashes series on Australian soil in the past 34 years, back on 2010-11 under then captain Andrew Strauss.